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A blackbird sits at the window,

flying A major,

but I need no comfort.

GERDA, 90  x 70 cm, oil, acrylic, lacquer on canvas, 2024

Working with paintings, texts, and collages, my focus is to reveal the true essence of people, the world, and situations. Sometimes, I see it; other times, I don’t. Sometimes, it frightens me, and sometimes, I’m enchanted by it. I call this process, which has been evolving over the past fifteen years, THE WEIGHT AND THE WINGS.
The Weight explores the processing of burdensome experiences, while its counterpart, The Wings, speaks of a supreme beauty that has evolved into a spiritual system, offering purpose and meaning.

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THE WEIGHT, 130  x 280 cm, Diptych, oil on canvas, 2024 / THE WINGS, 130  x 280 cm, Diptych, oil on canvas, 2024

... the paintings don’t feel rooted in place. Bandilla depicts a world in flux...the dreamlike pictures include areas of near-photographic realism, but also sections where the image seems to melt — more in the manner of Gerhard Richter’s photo-derived blurs than Salvador Dali’s drippy surrealism ... the transitions often involve hot white, which both illuminates and obscures, like sunlight so bright that it temporarily blinds ... the artist conjures a sense of movement, both with impressionistic style and in the choice of locales.

Mark Jenkins, Washington Post

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HUMBLED AT LAST

90  x  70 cm, oil  and pigment on canvas, 2024

 

... strong impressions by Lara Bandilla...between magical realism and deliberate abstraction... especially emotional and incisive are the works in which she narrates of her own family history....

                                                                 Elisa Krooß, Westdeutsche Zeitung

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THIS IS MY FOREVER, 190 x 160 cm, oil on canvas, 2023 / STILL MISSING YOU, 190 x 160 cm, oil on canvas, 2024

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THE TRAITOR`S TRIPTYCH, POTENTIAL - POWER - DESTRUCTION, 140  x 390 cm, Triptych, oil on canvas, 2023 / Collage, 140  x 400 cm,  2023

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The sky so vast, the world so free.

I feel a sense of unease, a slight itch in the soul.

SPIRIT OF HOME, 130  x 140 cm, oil, acrylic, lacquer on canvas, 2024

 

... different levels overlap in the light-flooded street scenes .at the same time the scenarios are partially outshone by a glistening bright light, which gives them a surreal touch. The impression of light and movement is characteristic of the series, in which the painter confronts the viewer with a "different reality"... the white light makes the streets and squares appear otherworldly...the fusion of disparate motifs, the plunging lines, the deliberate blurring and the dramatic contrasts of light and dark make it difficult to pinpoint the location ... the paintings are reminiscent of film sequences...

Hannah Styrie, Kölner Rundschau

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The sky was piercingly bright, the clouds crystalline white, and the wind powerful. The sun wove long threads of light into the streets, ascending them like a spider, stretching over the city like a mighty, divine beast.

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​​​I was glad that reality had bid farewell.

TOGETHER IN THE EARLY MORNING LIGHT, FINALLY TOGETHER, 180  x 140 cm, oil, acrylic, lacquer on canvas, 2024

 

...Bandilla deconstructs a post-apocalyptic world into layers and snapshots...a poetic approach to a non-place. The world presented by Bandilla consists of elements of language, the surreal, and everyday life, which continually dissolve only to reform in the next step. The artist breaks her images down into different layers to provide a different perspective…

 

neues deutschland newspaper

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RED SUN, 160  x 270 cm, oil on canvas, 2024

 

...crossing the genres, she narrates her stories through paintings and text. And when both of them come together, a multidimensional tableau takes shape for the observer; new ways of understanding, interpretation, and sensual perception present themselves. Lara Bandilla succeeds in finding an artistic space for 'reality subjectively perceived' as a contrast to personal freedom...
 

K24 KunstKulturKommunikation

 

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